Ahmadinejad deputy accused of embezzlement

Case is the latest jolt at the highest levels of Iran's government after Iran's president dismissed his foreign minister last week in favor of top nuclear scientist.

Haaretz, The top deputy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of embezzlement, the country's attorney general said Monday.

"There are (embezzlement) charges against the first deputy (Mohammad Reza Rahimi) and we are following the case. ..," Gholam- Hossein Mohseni-Ejehi was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying
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"He will face trial, but the charges against him are not yet proven and we have to wait for the first deputy's defense plea," the attorney general added.

The financial corruption charges against Rahimi were raised by a website and supported by two lawmakers who claim to have documents proving their charges.

The 61-year-old Rahimi, the most important among Ahmadinejad's 12 deputies, has reportedly been involved in a series of financial scandals, but has denied all claims of wrongdoing.

The case is the latest jolt at the highest levels of Iran's government. In a separate development last week, Ahmadinejad fired his foreign minister and appointed the country's nuclear chief in his place without explaining the reasons for the abrupt change.
Ahmadinejad wanted the nuclear scientist to be his foreign affairs chief when he became president in 2005, but factional pressures forced him to accept a different candidate and Salehi was pushed to the political sidelines.

With his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, awarded in the 1970s, Salehi has played key roles in Iran's nuclear programme which has been one of the main causes of tensions with the United States and the West.

In 1997, he became the international face of Tehran's nuclear programme when he was appointed ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.

Ahmadinejad's brusk firing of his foreign minister drew sharp criticism at home and abroad, re-igniting divisions between him and fellow conservatives who have long resented what they see as the Iranian president's power grabs.

What remains unclear is the more crucial question of whether the move will cause tensions between Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in the country and has clashed with the president over political appointments in the past.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the mottaki's dismissal should not disrupt talks on the country's nuclear program.